Auteur Film Series | Collin College

2026-2027 Film Series: Cinema and the Front Lines of Memory

We are taught history from a young age, and this education emphasizes objective truths: names, dates, and battles. But once we leave elementary classes behind, we enter a world of collective memory, where the hard facts of the past are reinterpreted based on different identities, different perspectives, and, sometimes, different truths. History is a contested battlefield, and perhaps the most contested history involves the history of conflict.

This year’s Auteur Film Series will feature six films about historical conflict. These films will encourage the Collin community to consider conflict’s effect on humanity as well as the role of movies in telling that story. Do these films bring us greater understanding of combat and history? To what extent do these films promote inaccuracies or over-simplify events that are inherently complicated?

In addition to these larger questions, these films will also give our community an opportunity to consider the histories of specific conflicts from many different perspectives. We will discuss the First and Second World War, the American Civil War, the Cold War, and the Iraq War. We will also consider the tumultuous legacy of the Vietnam War and discuss how sometimes the best way to tell the truth about conflict is through fiction…and aliens. — Bob Whitaker, Guest Director

Each film will be followed by a panel discussion led by Collin College faculty and staff. The series supports the college’s core values of learning, creativity and involvement by engaging students through film and discussion.

The Auteur Film Series is supported by SAFAC and the Academic Affairs and Workforce Division at Collin College.

All screenings are free and open to the public. Doors open 30 minutes before the film begins. Seating is limited. Some material may not be suitable for all audiences.

WarGames

7 p.m., Thursday, Sept. 17, 2026
McKinney Campus Conference Center
(PG, 1983, John Badham, 114 minutes)

Can a machine help us see the insanity of the Cold War? A young man hacks the US military’s artificial intelligence and accidentally turns the AI’s game about thermonuclear war into a reality.

Paths of Glory

7 p.m., Wednesday, Oct. 21, 2026
Frisco Campus Conference Center
(PG, 1957, Stanley Kubrick, 88 minutes)

What counts as justice in an unjust war? In the First World War, a commander defends his soldiers from court martial and execution after they refuse a suicide mission.

Presented in partnership with the Cougar Cancer Awareness Team.

Dunkirk

7 p.m., Tuesday, Nov. 17, 2026
Wylie Campus Conference Center
(PG-13, 2017, Christopher Nolan, 106 minutes)

Can mere survival count as victory? In this story of heroism in the face of annihilation, ordinary citizens take it upon themselves to save their nation’s cornered army in the Second World War.

Presented in partnership with the Veterans Week Committee.

Glory

7 p.m., Thursday, Feb. 11, 2027
Plano Campus Conference Center
(R, 1989, Edward Zwick, 122 minutes)

In this true story from the American Civil War, a regiment of black soldiers led by white officers attempt to contend with two wars: one against the enemy and one against each other.

Presented in partnership with the Black American Awareness Committee in honor of African American History Month.

Aliens

7 p.m., Tuesday, March 9, 2027
McKinney Campus Conference Center
(R, 1986, James Cameron, 137 minutes)

Is fiction sometimes more truthful than fact? In this science fiction allegory for the Vietnam War, a civilian survivor attempts to save a group of over-confident space marines from an unimaginable foe.

Presented in partnership with The Dignity Initiative in honor of Women’s History Month.

The Hurt Locker

7 p.m., Wednesday, Apr. 14, 2027
Frisco Campus Conference Center
(R, 2008, Kathryn Bigelow, 130 minutes)

Sometimes the most serious wounds from war are the ones you can’t see. In this film set in the Iraq War, a bomb disposal unit learns the devastating price but also complicated allure of combat.

Presented in partnership with Quest: An Undergraduate Interdisciplinary Research Journal.

Directors

Bob Whitaker
Guest Director of the Collin College Auteur Film Series
Professor of History

Carolyn Perry
Director of the Collin College Auteur Film Series
Professor of Humanities and Film
cperry@collin.edu

Representatives

Sean Geraghty and Diana Gingo
Frisco Campus Representatives

Rich DeRouen and Adam Miller
McKinney Campus Representatives

Linda Sears
Plano Campus Representative

Tiffany Cartwright
Technical Campus Representative

Serafin Matthews
Wylie Campus Representative

Nia Dillard
Student Representative

Members

Keith Charles
Member at Large

Umair Hayat
Member at Large

Charlene Houston
Hospitality

Martin Lee
Member at Large

Amy Liu
Member at Large

Ryan Pettengill
Member at Large